DVD reviews

I have been watching some very interesting DVDs lately — my opinion entirely, you may in fact hate them — if that is the case, you can ignore this completely and have a wonderful weekend instead!!

Casualty 1900s (2009)

Set at London Hospital in the early 1900's— the ten part series portraying true medical cases, characters and events that took place at London Hospital based on records, nurse's ward diaries and police reports. London Hospital  was located in the East End, a poverty-stricken part of London, with no government funding the hospital was totally reliant on the wealthy (such as the Rothschild family) to fund it — at times the hospital board thought it would all have to close.  The hospital staff had to deal  with infectious diseases like syphilis, pneumonia and tuberculosis to shocking injuries of the times such as self-abortion injuries, victims of anarchist bombings and an East End gang member wounded in a shooting.  It tells the truth, rather than showing the rose-colour view of early 20th century.
 
This isn’t for the faint hearted, in saying this it isn’t graphic, but when dealing with injuries there is blood (so not suitable for children) - being British is it very well done and understated!   It is a great reminder of how far medicine has come in the last 100 years (like being a fly on the wall), I found it fascinating and learnt a few things along the way.

Food, Inc (2009)

This documentary was an eye-opener.  I know that the producers went into this film with one motive—to expose the handful of multi-national food manufacturers and their control over the food industry in the USA.  As a result it does have a bias, taking this into account, the information in this film is very disturbing to say the least. Fortunately in Australia we haven’t quite reached the same point as in the USA, but we are heading in that direction.

Food Inc exposes the highly mechanized production of food which is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. There's bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but there's also new strains of E. coli the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually.

The film makes you think and that isn’t a bad thing at all as we all should know where our food is coming from — it makes you want to plant you own vegetables and eat organic meat and to cook from scratch rather than buying commercially made products.

Ascent of Money (2008)

I am no expert on Bond markets, sub-prime mortgages or the like but this documentary by the BBC (6 parts) is full of fascinating information which is presented in the most interesting and captivating way.   It covers a broad spectrum of economic history from the 14th Century right up to the present day (the start of the financial crisis)— and I must say that when it was on TV I avoided watching it thinking “boring economics”, but my son watched it and found it fascinating and I must agree with him.  Have you ever wondered about how and why we have banks?  How the Battle of Waterloo was won? As a history fan, this was worth watching.  Any teenagers studying economics would find it interesting.  Don't be put off becuase it is about finance.


What have you been watching?

~oOo~

Comments

  1. How interesting...my older sons watched the food one...I will check on these.

    Oh as for the clothes line on my post...too funny, I haven't lived in a neighborhood where you could put clothes out in over 38 years! It is in the by-laws in our subdivisions. I haven't even seen it done in that long...so funny how everyone does things differently according to where they live. Now if I ever live outside the city I might do it for the first time in my adult life. A lost art around here.

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  2. Oh I am going to tell my sons on the Ascent of Money...one trades stocks, the other is a financial major...they will love this.

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  3. I've been watching old episodes of Are You Being Served, which is, of course, terribly light compared to your recent dvds! I have to tell you that I've reading At Home right now by Bill Bryson, and am enjoying it. Thanks for the recommend!

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  4. The DVD's you've been watching all sound very interesting.

    I like some of the BBC series and have recently enjoyed Downton Abbey. Also, I just finished reading the Lady Julia Grey series by Deanna Raybourne.

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  5. parTea lady: I have just ordered Downton Abby from Amazon.UK - glad to hear that you enjoyed it as I hadn't heard of it before finding it on Amazon, it received very good reviews. I have just started to watched "Land Girls", another series new to me.

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  6. Hi there Jo! :D

    Just wanted to pop in say "hello"...

    Whilst I was in Hervey Bay on holidays over the Christmas break, my sister and I watched Food Inc. Very eye-opening that's for sure! I didn't want to eat McDonald's ever again! lol - not that I eat it alot but still... ;)

    I fear for those small businesses too...they don't stand much of a chance against the big corporations. That also was a huge eye-opener for me. I know of it before, but understood it a whole lot more.

    Take care and God bless you <3

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  7. Amanda - SO GOOD to hear from you again. I pray that all is improving in your part of the world.

    Everyone should watch Food Inc . . so the truth is known about how our food is manufactured by these huge corporations. its quite scary.

    Blessings

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